Inspired by Pavane's beautiful map (http://www.fanaticus.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=5358), I decided to design a simple map campaign for two players.

It'll be set during the Second Punic War focussing on the western mediterranean. It'll use a similar map with fixed routes and a couple more specials like ressources, roads and so on (I hope Pavane doesn't mind me stealing his ideas). We will have five factions, two core : Polybian Roman and Later Carthaginian, and three shifting allies : Iberian Ancient Spanish, Gallic and Syracusan. Each player will control his core faction and one random ally each turn, while the fifth faction acts randomly. Commands will be written down and executed simultaneously.

Following my draft of a ruleset. The idea is to keep it simple, but allow for some minor variations of the games. I think the ever shifting ally situation will be great fun ;) All in all it's just meant to be a casual backdrop for playing a lot of DBA.

(w o r k i n p r o g r e s s)

Definitions
core faction - one of the the players' main factions
ally faction - one of the additional factions of shifting allegiance
allied - every faction, army or fleet that is of the player's ally faction for that year
random faction - the leftover ally faction for that turn
enemy - every faction, army or fleet that is not of the player's core or ally faction for that year

main city - a faction's central city
capital - a core faction's main city
maximum number of elements - the number of elements an army can field in a DBA game set at 12
campaign year - a game-turn of four seasons
season - a subturn of a campaign year

Map features
divided by territories - territories are named by a city present or by their geographic area
ressource territories : spanish ore, gallic, sicilian and northern african grain, numidian horse, ...
terrain features : mountains (gentle hills), high mountains (steep hills), river (river), road (road), main city (BUA), coastline (waterway)

Basic rules
Setup
two core factions (Rome and Carthage), starting with two armies, one at their capital, one on an own territory of the player's choice, and one fleet on the nearest sea route (of choice) to the faction's capital
three ally factions (Spain, Gaul and Syracuse), starting with an army at their main city, Syracuse starting with an additional fleet on a sea route adjacent to it's main city (at random)
core factions start with territories worth x-1, ally factions with x/2 ressource points.

Turns
A turn (dubbed campaign year) consists of four subturns (dubbed seasons), one ressource season (winter) and three campaigning seasons (spring, summer, autumn). Each seasons is resolved by the following phases.

Phase 1 - allies phase (ressource season only)
The three ally factions are represented by cards, and each player draws one card which represents their allied faction for the following year. The leftover card depicts the year's random faction.

Phase 2 - ressource phase (ressource season only)
2.1 gather ressources
Each territory generates one ressource point, add one for a capital. Special ressource territories add another ressource point each, only usable for upkeep (gallic, sicilian or northern african grain) or unit building (spanish ore or numidian horse).

2.2 pay upkeep
Each army or fleet uses two ressource points. If upkeep is not paid, armies loose one of their maximum number of elements, and fleets cannot be used that turn. An army that lost four or more from it's maximum number of elements is destroyed. For each round of paid upkeep, an army regains one towards it's maximum number of elements, up to the maximum.
The random faction always tries to pay complete upkeep. If there aren't enough ressource points, they first neglect fleets, then armies (from farthest out to nearest to their main city, at random if necessary).

2.3 build units
Territories can levy armies, coastal territories can also build fleets. An army or fleet costs x ressource points.
The random faction never levies armies nor builds fleets, unless they haven't any army left, in which case they try to levy an army at their main city.
Unused ressource points expire at the end of the phase.

Phase 3 - command phase (campaigning season only)
Both players write down commands for their core and their allied faction. Then the commands for the random faction are generated randomly.

Phase 4 - movement phase (campaigning season only)
Armies can move one territory, plus another if moving along a road within both territories, or use one sea route if a fleet is present there (sea routes cannot be used if the fleet moved there that turn). An army's move is stopped once it meets an enemy army. Fleets can move an unlimited amount of uncontested sea routes, they are moved simultaneously one route at a time, and have to move along the shortest way to their destination - if enemy fleets try to enter the same route, they stop moving and stay where they are.
The random faction's armies move towards the nearest enemy army on their territory - ally faction allegiance first, core faction allegiance second. It moves it's fleets towards the nearest of it's armies. If there is more than one eligible move, it decides at random.

Phase 5 - combat and conquest
An army conquers any territory it stays in for one whole turn (not moved in that turn) without an enemy army present. If opposing armies meet, they engage in combat. If more than one army of one side is present, those of the core factions fight. Only one combat per territory is fought each season.

5.1 army composition
An army that fights on allied territory or with an allied army present on the same territory, can add one element from the allied contingent for that combat up to it's maximum number of elements, or exchange one of it's elements by one from the allied contingent for that combat.

5.2 attacker and defender
An army that moves onto a territory that contains an enemy army that didn't move that turn is always the attacker, an army on it's own or allied territory is always the defender (in that order of priority).

5.3 terrain influence
Prevalent terrain influences the selection in that at least one of the prevalent terrain pieces must be chosen. A waterway must be chosen if at least one army arrived via sea route that turn, and cannot be chosen if there is no coastline or stream present.

5.4 combat outcome
An army that is beaten falls back onto an own, allied, or enemy territory of the player's choice (in that order) - this counts as the army's movement for the next turn. It also looses one of it's maximum number of elements (can be regained the normal way).

Phase 6 - end (any season)
The campain ends when one core faction loses either all of it's armies or it's capital, or one player is bored.

The x number that a new army or fleet costs must be fine tuned, so that there is a natural cap on building new armies. That's why ressource points expire at the end of each turn, so over time a player can only build new armies by not paying the upkeep on others (or conquering new territories).

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/gaebriel/DBx/Campaign/WesternMediterraneanSmall.jpg
An idea for our map